New York Q&A: How can the financial problems of the US Postal Service be resolved?

The United States Postal Service has lost $5.2 billion dollars in the last quarter and recently defaulted on a huge loan. The Epoch Times asks New Yorkers: How can the financial problems of the US Postal Service be resolved?

Jack Leeds, 35, actor, Manhattan

Jack Leeds (James Smith/The Epoch Times)

“I think they should outsource to a consulting firm to restructure the way they run their business, so that it remains a government entity, but it is operated like private enterprise. The example that comes to mind immediately is like the city of New York, I’m not political and I don’t love the mayor, but that style of transformation is effective. So … to be competitive, you have to have a private style of operating (for profit), but [it] can still be subsidized by the government.”

Charles LaBarbera, 64, programmer, Rockland County

Charles LaBarbera (James Smith/The Epoch Times)

“From what I’ve read … Congress is really tying their hands and they’re not allowed to try anything, at the same time, they’ve put all these requirements on the postal service to prefund obligations going forward in the future. At the first look, it looks like the problem is with the Congress and not with the postal service.”

Denise Meechan, 42, TV producer, Brooklyn

Denise Meechan (James Smith/The Epoch Times)

“I heard in Germany, the postal service took over DHL and they’re making money, maybe the post office could take over FedEx or something, try to make a profit.”

Tom Carlim, 36, talk show producer, Long Island

Tom Carlim (James Smith/The Epoch Times)

“Right now I think all the post office delivers is junk mail and business items, people aren’t mailing home anymore, everyone is e-mailing or Facebooking. So maybe eliminating some service—everything that is overnight is going to be Fedex or UPS—so maybe they can eliminate their priority mail service.”

Unny Nambudiripad, 35, organizer, Minneapolis

Unny Nambudiripad (James Smith/The Epoch Times)

“My understanding is there are regulations that have required a really difficult financing of pensions that has really made it difficult for the postal service to remain solvent and what needs to be done is to loosen those regulations so that the postal service can operate and that would solve a lot of the problem.”

Shubha Bala, 31, non-profit program officer

Shubha Bala (James Smith/The Epoch Times)

“I think that they should just get rid of mail on Saturdays. I think they definitely need to think of ways so that the mail service doesn’t suffer or it doesn’t go under—there were talks of that in the past. I think the postal service is really, really necessary and it is great in the U.S. right now. I mean it is far better than the Canadian postal service, but we didn’t have mail on Saturday, if that saves enough money, then get rid of it on Saturday.”